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Groves Dictionary Of Music And Musicians,vol.2, 1906
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1musicum,' Witt. 1545. Five of his compositions are in the Dodecachordon. (Q.-I..)
3DIETSCH, PIERRE LOUIS PHILIPPE (b. Dijon, Mar. 17, 1808; d. Feb. 20, 1865), composer and conductor, was educated by Choron and at the Paris Conservatoire, was maître de chapelle at St. Eustache, and in 1860 became chief conductor of the Opéra. He was dismissed by Perrin, the director in 1863. He became organist of the Madeleine, wrote much church music and organ works (the popular Ave Maria, falsely attributed to Arcadelt, is said to have been by him), and acquired an unenviable notoriety in connexion with the purchase of Wagner's 'Flying Dutchman' libretto, at a time when Wagner was in straitened circumstances in Paris. Dietsch's composition was produced at the Opéra, Nov. 9, 1842.
5DIETZ (1), JOHANN CHRISTIAN (b. Darmstadt, 1788; d. Holland c. 1845), German maker and inventor of musical instruments, first established himself at Emmerich-on-Rhine, but, in 1805, having invented an instrument which he called a melodeon, he journeyed in the next year through Westphalia and Holland to exhibit it. This was not the instrument which bears this name to-day, but a kind of small piano about 4 ft. long and 2 ft. high. He then founded an instrument factory in Holland, but later settled in Paris where he invented the claviharpe (a harp with a mechanical action for plucking the strings, see HARP), and later (1812) the trochleon. About 1820 Dietz went to Brussels and set up a factory to make hydraulic machines and steam engines. (See Fétis.)
7(2) CHRISTIAN (b. Emmerich c. 1801), son of the above and, like his father, an inventor and maker of musical instruments. In 1819 he executed and exhibited one of his father's claviharpes at the Louvre, Paris, as described in the pamphlet Description du claviharpe, inventé par M. Dietz et exécuté par M. Dietz fils (Paris, 1821). The younger Dietz was himself responsible for the polyplectron and the phys-harmonica (see Fétis) and had a considerable reputation in France as a maker of upright pianos.
9DIEUPART, CHARLES (d. circa 1740), a native of France who came to England in the latter part of the 17th century, and was a fine performer on the violin and harpsichord.
11In 1707 he was associated with CLAYTON (q.v.) and Haym in introducing translations of Italian operas at Drury Lane Theatre. After the discontinuance of those operas and the failure of their subsequent concert speculation, Dieupart devoted himself entirely to teaching the harpsichord, and for some time taught, and gave concerts (1711-12) with considerable success, but towards the latter part of his life he acquired low habits, and frequented ale-
13houses, where he entertained the company by his fine performance of Corelli's violin solos. He published
14'Six Suites de clavecin, divisées en ouvertures, allemandes, courantes, sarabandes, gavottes, menuets, rondesaux, et gigues, composées et mises en concert pour un violon et flûte, avec une basse de viole et un archilut.' (Roger, Amsterdam.)
16An edition in London, with a dedication to the Countess of Sandwich by the composer, was sold by Francis Vaillant, 'The French bookseller in the Strand' (Athenæum, Dec. 1904). A copy in the National Library in Paris contains an autograph letter of Dieupart. A reprint of a portion of them was published by Walsh in London as 'Select lessons for the harpsichord or spinet.' In Dannreuther's Musical Ornamentation, part i., it is clearly proved that Dieupart's suites were well known to Bach, who based the prelude of his 'Suite anglaise' in A, No. 1, on the gigue from Dieupart's first suite in the same key. In a lecture at the Royal Institution, Apr. 30, 1892, the author suggested that the name 'Suites anglaises' may have been a term in use in Bach's family for the suites which Bach had based upon the works of a composer whose vogue was greatest in England.
18W. H. H., with addns.
20Birl.—A. Pirro, Les Clavecinistes (Collection des Musiciens Célèbres).
22DIFFERENTIAL TONES, see RESULTANT TONES.
24DIGITORIUM. An apparatus for exercising and strengthening the fingers, intended especially for the use of pianists, but claimed by its inventor, Myer Marks, to be of great service to all who require flexible and well-trained fingers.
26It consists of a small box about six inches square, provided with five keys,1 fitted with strongly resisting springs, upon which keys five-finger exercises are to be practised. In addition, there are attached to the sides of the box certain appliances for stretching the fingers, and a support for the wrist.
28The question of finger gymnastics received very full consideration from E. Ward Jackson in a work entitled Gymnastics for the Fingers and Wrist (London, Metzler & Co., 1874), in which he quoted opinions in favour of his system of exercises not only from musicians but from very eminent surgeons. F. T.
30DIGNUM, CHARLES (b. Rotherhithe, c. 1765; d. London, Mar. 29, 1827), a singer, the son of a master-tailor.
32His father, an Irish Roman Catholic, placed him when a boy in the choir of the Sardinian ambassador's chapel in Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, where his fine voice attracted the attention of Samuel Webbe, then organist there, who undertook to instruct him. He wished to be sent to Douay to be educated for the priesthood, but eventually decided on
341 Digitoriums are occasionally made of greater compass, with black and white keys, the ordinary digitorium having only white keys.
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